Writing is suffering

Green Owl herases me every day and I let it. Playing those Learn Japanese to survive games and making it everyones problem.

[orihara-infobroker]

[kjscottwrites]

[consolecadet]

These remind me of this drawing by Franz Kafka from the 1900s. We've been feeling this way for a long time.

[smol-civet]

prev, i'm sure you mean my guy Leonid Pasternak

[themerrywriter-deactivated20200]

Your book is going to be great; just put one word in front of the other. 

[unwriter-sc]

Until we hit a plot hole.

[themerrywriter-deactivated20200]

Nope. No negativity - you drop into that hole, see what you can learn from it, clamber out and finish your draft.

You can edit a bad book, but not a blank page.

[hedwig-dordt]

YOU CAN EDIT A BAD BOOK BUT NOT A BLANK PAGE

[bulbasaur-propaganda]

This basically confirms that if you fuse Bulbasaur line with any pokemon you will get perfection Artist: Doodlelot / Twitter

[jacaylsdcbhsdhk-deactivated2020]

being bilingual is just *knows meaning of word in your language but not the other* *cant explain it* *mental pause* *words that exist only in one language but not the other* *mixing languages mid sentance* *as you get better in one language you get worse in the other* *mental pause* *confusing meanings* *speaking both languages badly*

[justslightlyconfused]

That ‘comment on your a03 work’ email hits like a line of cocaine every time. unmatched dopamine increase. shoutout to everyone who leaves a comment on fics. you deserve the world

[luna-azzurra]

Being a writer means arguing with a person who doesn't exist about a decision they'd never make.

[quinnjgraham]

I know this is the website where we talk about artists and writers doing anything other than making art or writing, but man, we REALLY undersell how good it feels to actually work on your stuff.

Like you hit your word count for the first time in a week and its like

[elleldoe]

absolutely love abusing the power that comes with 3rd person limited pov and just ignoring things and being vague sometimes. does the character know all the details? no? then I don't have to either.

[weepingchoir]

you have a disgusting storytelling addiction

[atlas-prime]

It’s true. It goes back a long way, too. It all started when…

[egonkula]

Comics are evil cause how the fuck am i supposed to draw a cabinet i dont even know what a cabinet looks like

[egonkula]

Putting the characters in a white room and asking yall to use your imaginations

[araeofdrawings]

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[writerswritecompany]

Suggested reading: Writing Is An Act Of Courage

[writinglionqueen]

[subcorax]

in an effort to keep the cats from getting fur all over clean quilts i’m going to try to apply the “if there is a circle, a cat will sit in it” maxim by hoping that if there is a different colored box of blanket on the bed, they will lie on it

[subcorax]

update: it took less than a minute for them to find and lie on it. mission success

[ao3commentoftheday]

What's the point of writing something if virtually no one is going to read it? Sincerely, a skeptical disillusioned writer who has been writing for years and is wholly unimpressed with the phrase, "You're not writing for them, you're writing for you!" Because I'm not writing for me. If I were I would save my energy/time and keep it in my head and just daydream about it when I'm bored. I write to share my ideas with other people. If they don't see or care about it...why bother?

If you’re feeling this way, there probably isn’t a point and you shouldn’t bother. You’re not enjoying posting your content, so just take a break from it. It’s supposed to be fun. When it stops being fun, stop doing it. Keep things in your head or write them in a doc and just keep them to yourself for a while. You might feel differently again one day.

Sincerely, a writer who went through a period of time feeling a lot like you do but has since found a new perspective on things. It just took some time away, some self-reflection, and a reorientation to what was actually important to me compared to what I thought was important to me. 

PS there’s nothing wrong with being in it for the notes/kudos/comments. It’s only bad when those numbers (or their lack) start affecting you negatively. 

[everything-withered]

“What’s the point?” 

There is none. 

Look, fandom is voluntary, always. You chose to engage and participate, you decide how you want to interact with content you’ve enjoyed.

You could write little snippets of a thought about thing on tumblr, tag it, and leave it at that. You could make art. Create gifs. Get into some meta-theories. Write a story. Or you could just take the content, internalize it, and move on. 

There’s zero obligation to contribute to any fandom we’re interested in, it’s part of what makes fandom so amazing: Every piece of content we get that isn’t from the source is free, a labor of love, given for no other reason than the pure desire to do it. 

And if you’re creating content without that love, without the initial thought that this is something I enjoy doing then maybe you just don’t enjoy it at all? 

This could be as much as a passing thought (which comes and goes, and everyone has them) or a persistent one that constantly beats you down, either way, you need to take a look at yourself and ask whether or not you’re in fandom for the right reasons. 

As great as feedback and validation is, fandom is lawless and unpredictable. 

 You can follow every advice to write a good fic or how to create a following down to a “T”, and it still might not work. You need to decide if you’re okay with that, and if you aren’t - move on.

Step back. Take a break. Try out another fandom. Write something different. Post somewhere new. Take part in some community events. Hell, leave fanfic behind and write original content. 

Do something you like doing because when has anyone ever needed a reason to do something when they enjoy it?